Death By a Thousand Cuts
by SilentNephthys
Summary: The night of the gennin exams, Naruto decides to look ahead in the Forbidden Scroll and sees the Rasengen and the Body Flicker. That plus a Kyuubi that's more involved with Naruto's life leads to a much different story.
1. Exposition

**A/N: This is my first fanfic, so be gentle with the reviews. This begins at the night of the gennin exams. It then diverges slightly from the story but keeps all the important events present. Oh, and bold has to do with Kyuubi or author's notes.**

------------------------------------------------------------------

'This is going to be so great.' This was the thought that was going through Naruto's head over and over as he stood in the clearing that Mizuki told him about.

Naruto was in his normal garb. That really gaudy, tacky orange jumpsuit that no person with even a single brain cell would be caught dead in. Naruto simply loved the thing.

Naruto looked around the clearing. It was secluded with dense trees on every side. There was absolutely no trail leading to it and the only way to find it seemed to be if you were specifically looking for it. It was small enough to not draw attention and large enough to practice most jutsus. This was the perfect training spot. He'd have to thank Mizuki for telling him about it. He then took the scroll off of his back.

'Man this is one big scroll' he thought. It must have been the size of a log. Hmm, log, for some reason that comparison seemed important. "Oh well, better get to learning this jutsu so I can pas the exam," he said out load just to fill the clearing with some sound. The clearing seemed to be eerily quiet. 'Hmm, that seems foreboding. Whatever.'

He then opened up the scroll to take a look at the first jutsu. "KAGE BUSHIN! This is showing up everywhere. Well let's get to it. But first," Naruto grinned mischievously and looked a little bit further ahead, "Why just look at the one when I can check out the next few. First is the Rasengen. Let's see what this is."

The scroll read "_The Rasengen is a powerful jutsu that will rip the opponent apart from the inside if used correctly." _at this Naruto let out a whistle_ "Its drawback is it requires a lot of chakra control and con only be used in close combat. No hand seals are required. Its mastery is done in three stages..." _Naruto quickly read the rest. After finding that it required multiple items to learn (specifically balloons and rubber balls) he decided to put that off until he could buy those.

He then looked at the next jutsu, "_The Body Flicker. The Body Flicker is a jutsu that is easy to use but very difficult to master. The basics are creating a Kage Bushin and then using the Kawarimi jutsu to replace yourself with it, then dispel the clone. A true master of the technique can use the jutsu without any seals, sounds, or smoke and even manage to make the clone appear in any position and dispel it as you replace yourself, hence making it seem like he just disappeared and reappeared in a random pose."_

"That could be useful, but it seems like these jutsus either require either items or mastery of earlier skills. I should just learn the Kage Bushin.' And so Naruto started to practice the Kage Bushin. And practice. And practice.

/------------------------------------------------------------------

"KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!" Naruto yelled with all his might forcing as much chakra as he could into his jutsu. 17 clones popped into existence. He looked back at the scroll, '_Someone with a mastery of this jutsu can make 20 clones at any given time.'_ 'Damn, not enough'Naruto thought to himself. He was sweating and panting hard. It was at that time he decided to take a break, he had gotten close enough. He sat for long enough to catch his breath and stop sweating bullets.

That was when he saw Iruka-sensei enter the clearing. "I found you Iruka-sensei!"

"No you idiot I found you!" Iruka yelled. He was pissed; he had just spent his night running through the forest looking for that stupid kid. What the hell would possess that kid to take the forbidden scroll that the fourth had written all his jutsus in (including the one he would later use to seal the Kyuubi) and bring it into this secluded part of the forest?

"Why did you take that scroll?" Iruka asked, confusion dripping from his every word.

"Oh, Mizuki told me that if I could learn a jutsu from this scroll, you'd have to pass me. And guess what, I DID!" After this comment two thoughts went through his head. His first thought was 'Why would Mizuki tell him that?' Before his brain could process the answer to that a second thought came to his mind. 'How the could he learn one of those jutsus, they were all at least A ranked jutsus, and some were even S ranked!'

As he was contemplating the second thought the answer to the first became blatantly obvious as he sensed a malevolent, but familiar chakra. It was Mizuki. It clicked. He was after the scroll. He had just used Naruto to get to it. He was going to go further than the villagers; he was going to kill Naruto. He would not let this happen. He would protect Naruto with his life.

/------------------------------------------------------------------

"You should not have gotten involved Iruka! I was going to kill the brat first but you have been just too much of a nuisance. Prepare to die." Naruto heard this statement from where he was standing. His whole life had just been put in the blender. He was the Kyuubi. He was the Kyuubi and because of that no one loved him. He had felt like dirt and was angry as hell. That was until he heard what Iruka said. Iruka respected him and acknowledged him. He was the only one in the world that cared for him, and now Mizuki was going to kill that one person.

All of a sudden some thing inside of him snapped. He was angry, angrier than he had ever felt before, even with the villager's taunts. He felt power he never new he had coming to the surface. **(A/N: this is his power, not the Kyuubi's) **He was going to save Iruka. He jumped from his hiding spot and kneed Mizuki right in the chest sending him flying across the forest. He landed about 20 feet away from Naruto.

**"**Don't touch Iruka sensei or I'll kill you." Naruto said with a voice that gave off the impression that not only did he completely mean what he just said, but also that he was more than capable. The killing intent he was giving off made Iruka flinch, but Mizuki was too enraged to notice it.

"Shut up you little punk, I'll kill you in one shot!" Mizuki shouted at the child. He was enraged that this little idiot would dare to think that he could lay a hand on him. It was insolent; he would put this child in his place.

"Try it trash, I'll return the pain a thousand times." Naruto said in an almost calm voice. It was so confident that it was kind of disturbing.

"KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!" Naruto yelled. He needed to use this correctly. He pulled all the power he had from his body. Every last drop of chakra was put into this jutsu. This was for every time he had ever been mistreated. This was for every time any one had ever thought of him as the dead last. But most of all this was for Iruka. He would protect his precious person. Even if it cost him every last ounce of his life.

/-----------------------------------------------------------------

**Deep inside Naruto, in the seal that contained the most powerful demon in the world, the Kyuubi sat watching what Naruto was doing.**

**"Hmm the kid has spunk, and potential, and stamina out his ass and then some. Not many would be able to conjure that much chakra at will at his level. I wonder if I should let him take some of mine so he doesn't get himself killed." As the Kyuubi was weighing the chooses she saw what was going on outside her cage. 'Hmm, guess that won't be necessary.'**

/------------------------------------------------------------------

A thousand clones popped into existence as he did the seal. That would be more than enough. The clones then took to pounding on Mizuki, taking out the anger Naruto had keep pent up all his life under his mask of happiness on the teacher.

After wards, Naruto felt a lot better. That was when Iruka called him over. "Hey Naruto, come here for a moment." Naruto obliged. "Close your eyes." Naruto was wondering what was going on, but from the look in Iruka's eyes, he could tell it was a good thing. So he closed his eyes. "Now open them." Naruto opened his eyes to see Iruka's bare forehead. He then realized what had happened

"Congratulations, graduate."

/------------------------------------------------------------------

**(A/N): Hope you liked that, and yes, it will diverge move from the story line more than what happened in that chapter. Oh, and I will try to keep OOCness to a minimum. Please read and review.**


	2. The Acadamy

**(A/N): Are those flying pigs? Oh, back to this. Wow, this still exists? Just a word of advise, if a mob of angry reviewers kill me, chapter three will never be published, so uh… PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! Oh and I fixed the sex thing.**

/------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto was slowly heading towards the academy. Last night he had spent almost the whole time practicing his jutsus until he almost passed out. He had also spent a lot of money getting, in bulk, the items needed to use the Rasengen. As he strolled along, he laughed a bit at the memory of yesterday's incident with Konohamaru and the Harem No Jutsu. Ah, good times.

Nara Shikamaru was wearing his usual style. He had a short sleeve shirt worn over a fishnet undershirt. He had his newly acquired headband worn over is upper arm and had on a pair of jeans. His hair was in a very small pony tail. Naruto walked into the class room with an aura of pride around him. Shikamaru noticed this and was very confused. He had remembered seeing Naruto fail the gennin exams. He had seen it with his own eyes. He took this opportunity to question Naruto about this. Sort of.

"Hey Naruto, this class is for graduates only." This seemingly offhand comment really pissed Naruto off. Every one thought of him as the dead last. No one seemed to think he could pass. He didn't know that Shikamaru had seen him fail, so he was about ready to flip out, but he decided against it, no reason to make a scene.

"Don't you see the headband?" Shikamaru kept his whatever attitude. Naruto decided to take a seat. It was at that moment that Sakura walked in. He had a crush on her, she was truly beautiful. She was wearing a traditional red Chinese dress with a pair black of shorts underneath that showed through the sides of the dress.

She came his way and stood right next to the seat he was sitting at. 'Wow, she really wanted to sit next to me, this is like a dream come true.'

"Get the hell out of the way Naruto! I want to sit next to Sasuke." Sakura told him. She really didn't like the dead last that much, he was just annoying. Naruto was pissed, he looked to his left. There sat Sasuke, all cool and detached, he was the school heartthrob. He wore a blue t-shirt with the Uchiha fan on the back and a pair of cargo shorts. He had his signature scowl that seemed permanently glued to his face. All the girls loved that he was so angsty. He hated Sasuke. 'Hmm, maybe I should try my new jutsu.

Naruto made 2 hand seals inconspicuously under the table and did the Body Flicker. There was a poof and he managed to make the clone dispel itself before it could be seen. He appeared standing in front of Sasuke, but he was facing the wrong way. 'Damn it.' He quickly turned and immediately crouched down. His face was just a few inches from that of the angsty scum bag. They were glaring at each other with pure malice. That was when the worst possible thing happened.

The guy sitting directly in front of them bumped into Naruto and knocked him into Sasuke. Then their lips meet. It took them a second to figure out what happened. When they did figure it out, they decided to try to cough and spit and do various other things to clean their mouths.

'Something bad is about to happen,' Naruto could feel it. He should have used body flicker to leave. But he wanted to know what was behind him. He looked. He regretted this course of action immediately. There stood Sakura cracking her knuckles. Behind her was at least ¾ of the female part of the class. He was in deep shit.

3 minutes later when Iruka got into the class, he saw Naruto sitting at his seat looking like the shit had just gotten beat out of him. 'Oh well, time to announce the teams.'

"Attention students, it is time to name the teams." Naruto was kind of out of it so he spaced out until he heard his name. "Team 7 Uzamaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura..."

"Yeah!" Naruto yelled. 'Now just anyone but Sasuke and I'll be fine'

"And Uchiha Sasuke." Now it was Sakura's turn to yell her excitement. She was happy even if she was on the same team as Naruto.

"Please go wait for your Jounnin sensei in the provided room."

/------------------------------------------------------------------

"Man this sucks!" raged Naruto. He was pissed off that his sensei was not there yet. He decided it would be good for his anger if he punched a wall, so he did. As his fist connected, a small, almost unnoticeable amount of chakra was released. It wasn't Naruto's. Naruto didn't know this of course, but he was surprised at what happened anyways.

The sudden sound roused the Uchiha from his angsty trip down memory lane. He looked over his shoulder to the back of the small square room he was sitting in. There he saw something he didn't think was possible. Naruto had apparently blown a crater into the back wall of the room.

'WOW,' that was the single thought that went through Naruto's head. He had been angry, sure, but he had never done that before, nothing even close to that. It clicked. 'I thought that the meditation might help a little, but this is awesome. He was, of course, talking about the meditation he had done that morning and the night before in accordance with what the scroll had advised when learning the body flicker. The same meditation that had started to put steps into motion that wouldn't have happened for months other wise. The same meditation that would eventually change his thoughts of the Kyuubi. Naruto was ignorant as usual.

He immediately took the water balloon out of his pocket and tried to swirl chakra in it. He managed to get it to spin but without any distortion to the shape of the balloon.

"Hey dobe, what's with the stupid colored balloon?" Sasuke asked. And he actually was curious. Naruto had just blown a crater into a wall and then took a balloon out of his pocket and rested it on the palm of his hand.

"Yeah Naruto, what is that balloon for?" Sakura was also stunned. Naruto was the dead last; he shouldn't be able to do that. Sasuke should, but not Naruto. 'Whatever,' she thought, 'back to Sasuke watching.'

Sasuke was not going to put it out of his mind that easily. 'I mean, _Naruto _blew a _crater_ in the wall. Sure, I could do it, but it wasn't some thing a normal, just out of the academy gennin could do on a whim.'

"Now really, how did you do that?"

/------------------------------------------------------------------

Kakashi was on the way to meet his three students. Or, at least he would get there eventually. Currently he was just lost in thought wandering in the general direction of the academy. He was close (by his standards) when he felt a sudden surge of chakra coming from said academy. He mind went through a quick string of logic. Every one was probably with their Jounnin instructors. All but his three students. Iruka had left. That left three people. He decided to hurry up.

/------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm not going to tell you." Naruto was happy. Scratch that Naruto was ecstatic. He had something to hold over Sasuke's head. Finally Sasuke knew what it meant to fell inferior. Well, he didn't but Naruto thought he did.

"I'm not going to ask again."

"Thanks, then I won't need to tell you."

THWACK. That is the sound that would have been made if Sasuke's fist had hit Naruto. Which it would of if Naruto had not taken that exact time to stretch his back. He had leaned his head back just enough to make it so that Sasuke's swing came a hair's breath from hitting him. To the three other people in the room it looked like he had just deftly dodged the blow. Some people have all the luck.

Speaking of three people, Kakashi had just entered the room. He had been about to step in when Naruto dodged the punch. Now his jaw had taking the liberty of hanging open. In fact, if his mask wasn't there, it would probably have hit the floor like Sakura's currently was.

Sasuke had a little more of a conserved reaction, but not by much. He had frozen.

'There's no way. Just no way."


End file.
